About us

There are two of us who have committed to growing the Arts & Crafts Society website: Lauren and Jim.

Lauren and Jim have worked together for the last six years on a several websites, especially Antique Home and Demesne. Demesne is primarily focused on homeowner information ...especially for new homeowners, the young, or the somewhat inexperienced. It's about gardening, home maintenance, and improvements with a eco-friendly slant.

Antique Home reflects where our passion has really been for the last few years. We've acquired a huge number of publications and resources that we've been scanning and adding to the website. It includes house plans from 1900 to 1960, definitions of style, mill work, and house parts. We want to make the information available to architects, designers, students, and owners of old houses as a free resource. We are really librarians at heart.

Our backgrounds

For many years, Lauren worked as a respiratory therapist before jumping into
the Web world about nine years ago. She is extremely knowledgeable about search
engine optimization and Web marketing.

Her interest in Art & Crafts stems from learning about the nature of quality
when she first sewed as a child. If you talk to her she'll go off on the importance
of craftsmanship in textile quality and construction ... which certainly explains
how she has amassed a such a huge collection of A&C textiles. She considers
herself a dedicated student of the Arts & Crafts movement. Using her
1916 bungalow as a canvas, she has put together a nice collection of new and original Craftsman furnishings. She reads constantly and broadly on the subject.

Jim is the technical guy who makes the programming end of the site work. As
the principal for Canright, a Portland-based web development company,
he has 25+ years of experience in programming, interactive design, and
business management. Without the use of his tools and skills, making the site
redesign a reality would have taken much more time and energy!

Our love for the Arts & Crafts Movement

Where the philosophy is concerned, we are all deeply committed to it. We agree with
Gustav Stickley that simple, honest design and execution is infinitely preferable
to enormous quantities of poorly constructed goods made of inferior materials. Our
personal tastes vary, but we think that the original Arts and Crafts Movement--
with its focus on beauty, utility, craftsmanship, and striving to be in harmony
with nature--was the original environmental movement. As such, we want to promote
those values in our everyday life and those of our readers.

Looking to the future of the site

As time goes on, we will be adding new resources, enhancing the bookstore,
and writing new articles. We want to invite experts to share their knowledge
with the larger community of Arts & Crafts lovers and entice the larger
audience to engage in exchanging resources and information to make this a dynamic
and exciting online community.

Our goal is to make the Arts & Crafts Society a valuable resource for all our readers and forum participants. We hope you'll enjoy the transformation and won't be able to stop yourself from posting a "Bungalow of the Day" or your latest Arts & Crafts find on the forum!

Contact us

Please write to us if you have questions or want to share with
us. Our "door" is always open!